ALL THE PICTURES: The Lion King, Valentine's Day AND Snow Days!

Earlier this month, my mom, Autumn and I went to see the Lion King at the Orpheum! Autumn isn't a huge fan of the movie because she thinks it's kind of scary but the show is so popular and she liked Phantom so I thought we should give it a try! The show started at 8 and, despite a nap, Miss Autumn was wilting a bit. But from the very first, she perked right up. By the intermission, she was all THIS IS AMAZING.

I asked Autumn what her favorite part was and she said, "ALL OF IT." My mom didn't get to have dinner with us like we did last time but Autumn and I had some Panera and dressed up anyway. Since the show, Autumn keeps asking when we are going again. I don't think she quite understands that it's only here for a little while and costs a little too much to see twice. She wants Mike to come so I told her we'd all go again next time it comes.

In other news, Autumn is getting her dog book fix in! Some of our friends gave Autumn a stack of books from when they were into animal books, too! Autumn has these on her bookshelf all arranged by topic and series and order she plans to read them.

Last week, I'm sure everyone knows we had SNOW DAYS. Except there wasn't really any snow. It was ice. Most of the main thoroughfares were fine after the first couple of the days but side streets and sidewalks were iced over so we only had one day of school last week. One of the ice days, Autumn and I went out and slid on the ice, made the Tiniest Snowman, and looked for animal tracks.

Molly did this during the cold.

We stayed busy by keeping up with online homework, reading, straightening, shivering, and Autumn learned to sew! We started on paper plates with a big needle and embroidery floss. She wanted to make a nine patch quilt like Laura in Little House. Autumn did a pretty good job when she remembered to not wrap stitches. She has a whole 9 patch quilt block (I don't have a photo yet!) and I think I'm going to get a charm pack of precut patches to let to her make a few more.

Oh, we also played some Warcraft! Autumn was able to drive her character on her own! I stayed nearby to make sure she was headed the right way but Autumn completed an entire quest by herself! I have it set so that she can't see anything written by anyone except our guild (which consists of Mike, Donnie, Liz, and me!) and no one can duel her or invite her to anything which is great.

And, FINALLY, I hope everyone had a fun Valentine's Day. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I enjoy it because I like holidays and excuses to celebrate. Mike did great. He got Autumn the coolest chocolate ever! He also got me chocolate and flowers AND ordered the new Laura Ingalls Wilder book, Pioneer Girl, however, it is out of stock. T_T

Autumn made a really cute Valentine mailbox featuring Peso from Octonauts. We printed a coloring page and she colored and cut it out. Then we put sparkle modge podge on it. Too fun!

On the other side, she drew her own Peso! SO CUTE I LOVE IT. After she made her box, Autumn made her own Peso costume with a black track suit, a white circle, a paper medical bag, and a paper hat. No, we don't really get bored here. :)

I'm teaching Monday nights in a late time slot and having a bit of a hard time updating the blog after class. I'm going to give Tuesday mornings a try! Until next time!

Snow Day!

The much anticipated Snow Day actually arrived, much to my surprise. I usually doubt it when people get in a frenzy about snow, preferring to be pleasantly surprised over sadly disappointed, haha. Mike got an early start on playing in the snow by walking around outside at, like, 11pm. I was at my computer in front of the warm heater when suddenly a couple of big snowballs hit my window and startled me.


Autumn woke up crazy early ready to roll out. We made her eat breakfast and get dressed first.


I think this might be the first time she was able to make snowballs all by herself.


But, like always, she had just as much fun getting hit by snowballs as making and throwing them.


We had a family effort at making a snowman. Mike made the base and I made the middle. There's no pic of me making the middle (Mike took some video) but I maintain mine was the best. :D


Autumn made the head. She was too impatient to roll it for very long so we have a very tiny headed snowman.


The house looked really pretty. It was painted back in late October and I think I forgot to post a picture. It looks great...if you need a good painter, let us know and we can get you the info for the guy who did it. He also did Mike's parents' house.


This was a funny little snow formation. It kind of ribboned out. There wasn't any support for the dips so I don't know how it happened like this.


We had some little animal tracks all over our front walks. :) Our neighbor has a couple of cats that roam so I'm guessing they did some winter exploring.


Anyway, after a lot of pictures, video, snow angels, snow romping and snow chases, we called it a morning. Autumn had snow in every crevice--hat, hood, gloves, socks, everything. But it was a lot of fun!


I also thought I'd break out some old snow pics. Mike and I have been kind of marveling about how grown up Autumn is these days. Here she is seeing her first snow in Birmingham back in 2008. Not super impressed...


I just love this picture. This is from 2009.


I think that was the year we got like 11 inches of snow. Since we were on the golf course, we had a huge expanse of white to play it. Autumn wasn't too thrilled about it at that time, though.


Last year is about when she started to get excited about snow.


But this year? This year she was anticipatory about the snow coming and just chomping at the bit to go out when it got here. :) Funny how times change!